Code Lyoko: Infection
by thesuperdot
Summary: An elite group of hackers, a mystery man named 'Master', and the Lyoko Gang. Plus Xana strange inactivity. Oh the fun to be had...
1. Hacking the hacker

Author's Note:Due to unforeseen circumstances, (Sephiroth and Ice3 may or may not have been involved) The Quest Phase 2 has been placed on hold. As a result, my 'creative spark' is going full swing with one that happens 2 stories later. I really want to proceed with this series, so I have decided to write it. Here is what a 'teaser' of what happens between then and now:

Jeremy is recovered from the heart of Lyoko.

Yumi is sent to the hospital due to an interesting condition.

Now then, I hope you understand, and who knows? I may get the ideas I need to bridge the gap. On with the show!

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It is night in the town of Sharpsburg, Maryland. And although everyone is asleep, one is awake. He sits alone on the office computer currently hacking a jock's computer.

Normally, he wouldn't do such a thing, but this particular jock called him a "four-eye, queer, toothpick". Needless to say, the teen did not like that. He may be small and thin, and he may wear glasses, but he is most certainly NOT queer.

So he decided to do something about that. After everyone had gone to sleep, he had gotten up and went to work. Now, 2 hours after he started, he had given the jock 365 viruses (most on his modem and motherboard), and sent his name to a dozen porn sites, even signing him up for some!

Now he sat and looked thoughtfully at the computer screen. His mouse pointer was poised over the save button and was all set to give the jock three F's, and two D's.

But did he really want to? It was just a harmless barb…

No. He deserves this. Just because he is captain and star player of the college football team, he does not have the right to make fun of people who aren't like him. Without a second thought, he clicked the save button.

He leaned back in his chair and smiled. So long team captain! But just as he was about to close the AOL, he received some e-mail.

"You've got mail!" The voice chimed.

He rolled his eyes. It was either the HOGWARTS newsletter or PalmOne with a promotional message. He opened his inbox and was surprised to see it was neither. In fact, it was from himself!

He look around the vacant room. 'Who…?' he thought to him self. He was even more confused as he read the letter.

_Dear Mr. Jason Cornell,_

The note began,

_You are probably curious to know what you have been sent this letter. It is because you have been selected to join and elite organization of hackers. I must say, after what you did to that jock,_

Jason gasped in surprise! Someone was watching him!

you seem to be an excellent choice. If you would like to join, I can assure you a position in my Master-Elite group. All you have to do is got to BWI, and say "reservation for Jason Cornell" to the clerk at InterAir. You will be given a first-class ticket to Kadic. I do hope you accept this offer.

_Signed,_

_Master_

Jason reread the letter. Would he go? Like a cat to catnip. But how would he convince his Mom and stepfather?

The next day, his brilliant excuse (College Exchange Program) earned him the trip.

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Author's Note:I think it is important to note something. The time frame of this story is late summer. Xana has done nothing since the Yumi hospital incident. Or has he…?

See ya!


	2. Plans and getting ready

Author's Note: And so we take a look at what the gang is up to… On with the show!

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"So, what are your plans for today, Yumi?" It was a bright, sunny afternoon in Kadic, and Ulreck, Odd, Yumi, and Jeremy were relaxing under a tree in the courtyard of the school.

"I don't know… I hadn't really thought of anything. Why?" The dark hared girl said.

"Oh, I was going to go swimming at the community pool. Would you like to go?"

Yumi stood up and shrugged her shoulders. "Ok, sure. I'll go get my swimsuit and meet you there."

Ulreck smiled. "Cool, hey Odd, you want to come? Or would you rather go to that new all-you-can-eat buffet?" Odd, who had been relaxing against the tree opened one eye. "Actually," Odd began, "I WAS indeed going to. My parents wanted to go out as a family and suggested that."

Ulreck smiled wider. "Do we know you or do we know you?" He taunted. "And what does Jeremy have planned today?"

Jeremy looked up from his laptop. "I was going to head down to the factory. You know, to work on the anti-virus."

Yumi looked at Jeremy. "You've been working on that all summer. Take a break from it."

"No way! With Xana not launching any attacks, I've been making great progress!"

"Speaking of which," said the purple hared boy, "what has he been up to? We haven't had to go to Lyoko for almost the whole summer."

"I wish you hadn't said that!" Sighed Ulreck. "Every time you say something like that, Xana attacks!"

"Yeah, yeah! Hey, I can't help it!" Odd got up. "Well, I gotta go. See ya tomorrow!"

Ulreck and Yumi waved goodbye. "Yeah, see ya Odd! Come on, Yumi, let's head to the pool. Bye Jeremy, tell Alieta we said hi."

Jeremy said he would. After a few minutes, Jeremy left and headed to the abandoned factory.

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Not too far away, in the warehouse part of the Industrial Park, two lone figures in warehouse 82 were setting up.

"Stephanie?"

"Yes, Master?"

"Is everything ready?"

"Yes."

"The main server computer on?"

"Yes. The backup power and storage units are also operational."

"The laptops?"

"Formatted, necessities installed, and your encryption protocol are ready."

"Any bugs in the code?"

"None whatsoever."

"And what of our… 'Friends'?"

"53 out of 53 are expected to come."

"And our worldwide agents?"

"200 out of 200 have accepted you offer."

"Excellent! The Infection has begun…."

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Author's Note:I think I've lost my touch… Anyway, who is Stephanie? And what is she doing with Master? And what is Infection? You'll see…

See ya!


	3. On the plane

Author's Note:If you haven't guessed by now, the character named Jason Cornell is I. Yeah that's right! I'm in it! I am also pleased to announce that 3 more OCs will make an appearance. My friend, ShadowDragon, has created two of them. The other one is based upon my high school friend. Yep, this story will be full of OCs! Enjoy! On with the show!

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Aboard the 747 Boeing jet, Jason sat and marveled at his surrounding. The First Class section for the jet was very spacious and even more so in comfort. The seat they were given seemed to be made of silk and there was the nice thought of being able to recline with out cramping the person behind you.

Jason looked up at the ceiling and deciphered which button was the call button. No later than 30 seconds passed when a stewardess appeared at his side. (He had been given the aisle seat.) She was dressed in a white long-sleeved shirt with a red vest, a red skirt that came down to her knees, and a matching red cap. She was a tall brunette with magnificent brown eyes. "How may I help you sir?" She asked politely.

Jason looked up at her. "Wow. That was fast! Ah, d'you happen to have some crab-cakes up there? I'm getting a little hungry."

The stewardess looked at him thoughtfully. "I think we may have a few left. But, just to be safe, why don't you select something else?"

He shrugged. "I dunno, how about a grilled cheese?"

She nodded. "Ok, sir. I'll make the crab-cake if we have it. If we don't, then it'll be the grilled cheese." And with that, she left.

Jason sighed and moved his arm. In doing so, he accidentally ribbed the person sitting next to him. He looked over and began to apologize.

"I'm sor-"

He stopped to take a better look at the person he ribbed. He was a tall male. His hair was drawn back and pulled into a ponytail at the neck. His face was long and worn-looking, he wore what appeared to be multi-colored sunglasses and there were small, hairy moles dotted around his face. Jason shook his head in disbelief. "Zack?"

The man turned and looked at him in the same way. Finally he spoke. It was deep voice that sounded like it could speak Russian with no problems. "Jason?"

Jason broke into a smile. "Zack! Hey, man, how are ya?"

Zack also smiled. "Hey Jason, nice to see you as well. I'm doing fine. You?"

"Never better. Say," Jason suddenly became curious. "Did you receive…?"

Zack seemed to have read his mind before he finished speaking. "…An e-mail from 'Master'? Yep, I did. I guess you did, too."

"Any ideas who…?"

"None whatsoever."

Jason looked around again, but this time, he looked at the passengers on board. It had just now occurred to him that he wasn't the only hacker out there. This 'Master' had probably contacted other people as well. But how many? How many were on this plane now?

As he scanned the section, he didn't notice anything unusual. Then he noticed a pair that looked totally out of place.

"Hey, Zack, take a look at the two behind us."

Sitting is row B, seats 4 and 5, were two people sitting together. The one sitting in seat 4B, which was next to the left aisle, was about 5'3" with brown eyes so dark, they looked like they were black, and had dark brown hair in a regular boy's cut. He was wearing a white baseball tee with blue sleeves and collar and had on pair blue jeans. Now that wasn't the unusual thing about him. It was the person who was sitting next to him that was unusual. It looked like there was an exact copy of the person that was sitting seat 4B, though with a few exceptions. It was a she, as there was a bosom, and she had her hair long with a ponytail at the neck. Her eye were such a light blue, they looked almost white.

Suddenly, the male noticed that Jason was looking at him. Jason tried to quickly look away, but was too late. Jason found the situation to be very awkward indeed, and was very pleased when the stewardess called his name.

"Excuse me, Mr. Cornell?"

"Yes?"

"I was told to give this to you during the flight." She handed him two envelopes, one was a small white envelope, and the other was a large yellow envelope. She looked at the person next to him. "Mr. Star?"

"Yes?"

"I was told to give you this during the flight." She handed him similar looking envelopes.

Jason read the letter. It was from Master, as he suspected, and it told him to take a taxi to a specific hotel. Jason reasoned that the only reason he would tell him to go to that hotel was because he had a reservation there. What he didn't know was how he was going to pay the taxi when he didn't have any money. At least, he didn't, until he opened the yellow envelope.

"Whoa."

The envelope was fill with European money and Jason didn't need a hint as to what he was to do with it.

Putting the letter away, Jason looked in front of him. Placing a hand on his stomach, he wondered when that stewardess was going to bring him his food. When the stewardess arrived, however, it wasn't the crab cake. It was the grilled cheese. He looked at the stewardess, who gave him a sympathetic little shrug and walked off.

Eating his sandwich, he wondered who the heck Master really was.

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Author's Note:The people in seats 4B and 5B were the two that were created by ShadowDragon. Their name will be told later on. ShadowDragon didn't really give me a description for them, so I just made them twins. Is that ok, SD? See ya!


	4. You should be a Model

Author's Note:Now to honor dantheman7777's interest. Yumi and Ulreck at the community pool. This probably won't be a long chapter, due to the fact that I cannot write romance scenes worth a crap. Also, the first meeting of Infection will appear soon and I also plan to give my view on the technical aspects of Lyoko. I have found a great way of dealing with writer's block. A labyrinth. What is it? See the end.

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Down at the community pool Yumi and Ulreck were having a relaxing time. No matter how hard you tried to say it was a date, they would vigorously deny it. It was simply a way to beat the heat.

At the current moment, Yumi was lying down sideways next to the pool with her head propped up by her arm. She was wearing a two-piece bathing suit that was not quite a bikini, though it did make Ulreck glad she was his girlfriend.

"You know," Ulreck remarked, "you should become a model." Ulreck elected to relax in the pool and had his chin resting on his arm, which were on the rim of the pool.

Yumi smiled. "I don't know. Do you think I'd be good enough?"

Ulreck shook his head. "Are you kidding? You'd steal the show!"

"Yeah? Maybe I should…?"

"You become a model? You don't have a chance!"

Yumi and Ulreck looked over. Sissy was standing at Yumi's feet. She, unlike Yumi, was wearing a bikini. A sickening pink bikini with a (surprise!) red heart on the bathing top. Then, making sure to block Yumi's sun, sat in front of her face, deliberately, of course.

Ulreck rolled his eyes and lowered his arms into the water. "What do you want."

"Nothing. I just want to say hi."

"Yeah? Hi. Now go away."

Sissy ignored this. "You do realize that Yumi does not have the looks or personality to be a model."

Yumi piped up behind Sissy's back. "Yeah? And I suppose you do?"

"Yes. As a matter of fact, I do!"

Ulreck had enough. "I think your gonna need a towel."

Sissy looked at him quizzically. "Why? I'm not wet."

Ulreck smiled. "Yeah…." Then in one fluid motion, he kicked off the pool wall with his feet, swung his leg up out of the water, and completely soaked Sissy. Everyone who saw it erupted in laughter. "…now you are!"

Sissy stood up and went red in the face. If anyone had cared to take a closer look, they would have noticed that her face was drying the water. "Ohhhhhhh!" Was all she had to say and stormed off.

Yumi was sitting up clutching her side from laughing too hard. "That…. That was great!" She managed to gasp out. After she had calmed down, she got up. "it's getting late. Want to head back?"

Ulreck got out. "Yeah, okay."

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It should be noted, however, that Sissy accidentally caused the pool to be closed for a week. You see, as she stormed off, she bumped into a kid with an unwrapped Baby Ruth bar. In his surprise, he dropped the candy bar into the pool.

Needless to say, it was found again and slightly confused with something else.

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Jason Cornell opened the door to Zack and his executive suite. They were at a luxurious five-star hotel that clearly must have cost a lot of money for a simple room.

As they looked around, they noticed, on the king-sized canopy bed, two shiny black laptops. Jason picked his up and opened it and a note fell out.

It simply said:

The East Side Docks.

Warehouse 86.

8:30 PM.

Tonight.

It seemed 'Master' acted fast.

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Author's Note:That turned out better than I hoped. So then, stay tuned to the next chapter; it's the first meeting of Infection. Now then, what is a labyrinth?

It is not a maze or a puzzle. There is no right or wrong way to do it. The only rule: put one foot in front of the other. It is a right-brain activity, empty your mind. It is NOT religious; it is spiritual. It is a form of meditation. I know of some sites that explain better than I can. E-mail if interested.

See ya!


	5. The First Meet

Author's Note:Okay people! Here's the first meeting of Infection! I'll try to make a s interesting as possible, fortunately, I am fond of the story line. Oh, and Dantheman7777? Just think of that as alternate reality that happens after they return to the past. It'll work. Here we go, and on with the show!

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Emerging from the taxi, Zack and Jason looked at the complex before them. It was the exact setting that you'd see in a movie. A bunch of small, fat buildings crammed together. The entrance sign that stood above the open gate simply said East Side Docks.

Zack shrugged. "Well, which one's 86?"

Jason motion to the map tacked hastily to a small office trailer. "How 'bout we use the map?"

He held out a hand to stop Zack. "What say we make it interesting? Who ever finds the location of the warehouse first, wins. And loser, uh, imports two cases of IBC Root Beer."

Zack agreed. "You're on. Ready? Set? GO!"

For over a minute the pair carefully scanned the map's assortment of rectangles and squares in silence until… "HA! Found it!"

Zack looked at Jason with disbelief. "Yeah?" He challenged, "Where?"

He pointed to a point of the map right at the edge of Dock #23. "There!"

Zack looked at it for the longest time. Then he slowly turned his head to look at Jason. "Damn you." He said half amused.

Jason could only smile triumphantly.

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"Hello. You must be Zack and Jason. Come in, you're a tad early."

Upon reaching Warehouse 86, they didn't even need to open the double doors. They looked in silence at the girl walking up to them.

She was tall, and thin with a slight build to her. She had long dark blonde hair to her neck and her face seemed to hide a boyish charm underneath her blue eyes.

Zack and Jason made no move to enter or follow the girl.

"Well?" She said, "Don't be shy. I don't bite."

"How…?" began Jason.

"Who…?" began Zack. But they never got a chance to finish their questions.

"My name is Stephanie. I work directly with Master and I alone know what he looks like. As for how I knew you where you were and your names, I'm not a hacker for nothing and the door has a camera above it." She pointed to a not-so-discreet camera directly above the door. She turned and headed into the warehouse.

They shrugged and follower her. "You are the last to arrive. It is amazing, really. I didn't expect all of you to show!"

As they entered the warehouse they noticed that it was large. It was two-story warehouse with an elevator and stairway leading to an office and catwalk. On the ground floor there was a number of round tables with four odd little box on them. Hanging on the wall, sides by side, farthest from the entrance were 2 very large flat-screen plasma TVs as well as the elevator up to the office. On the left of the entrance was an economy-style kitchen complete with toaster oven and microwave, as well as a refrigerator. To the right, there were a lot of chairs to sit on.

But one thing that stood out among all of that was the number of people that were there. Master had indeed attracted a lot of attention.

"Wow. There must be at least 50 well known hackers here!" Jason said. Stephanie acted like she didn't hear it.

"Do you see those tables?" She pointed to one. "Those tables are state-of-the-art data hubs. You can plug into Master's server and also recharge your battery from it." She turned to them and smiled. "I can see you've noticed that the people here are the who's who of hackers in the world. Your very lucky to be here." With that, she picked her laptop up from a near by data hub and walked toward the TVs. Upon reaching the elevator, she turned and called for attention.

"Excuse me. Thank you for coming. You all are actually very early. The meeting isn't supposed to start for 10 minutes. My name is Stephanie and I am the personal assistant to Master. Please, feel free to wander around the warehouse but do not enter the office," She pointed up to the office, "You may not enter it unless you ask or a asked to. I shall go inform Master of your eagerness." With that, she went up into the office via the elevator.

Jason looked around and noticed the pair from the airplane. As Jason looked, they made eye contact with him. After as second, the got up from their seats and walked to him. Jason flinched. "Shit. Ah, hello. You were on the plane, right?"

They spoke in the same tone of voice. "Yes." Said the male.

"Yes, we were." Said the female.

"Ah…. I…. I see. Well, ah, my name is, ah, uh, Jason. Pleased to meet you….two…" He held his hand out. They just stared at him. He withdrew his hand.

"Hm. Very well. My name is Sam Johnson." Said the male.

"And my name is Kristin Johnson. We are twins."

Jason had to stifle a laugh. "R-really? I'd have never guessed."

They glared at him. "We bet. You are the one who manages to make your enemies interests to the FBI."

He nodded triumphantly. "That, and other things as well. The only way you'd know that is if you hacked the FBI mainframe. I guess you two are the ones who hold the record at 18 minutes."

"You know your stuff. We are indeed. Isn't that right, sister?

"Yes. It is, and it is a great honor to have that record."

Suddenly, a voice spoke from the PA system and the TVs flickered to life. The first thing the showed on both was a capitol I inside of a circle. "Good evening."

The screen on the left switched to a male silhouette against dark blue background. "You all are very early. Very early indeed. I like that. Shows your eager to know what I want."

A large man in the back rolled his eyes and called out to the screen, "Yeah, yeah! Cut the crap, pal, you Master?"

The silhouette laughed. "Ha, ha. Indeed I am. And you must be John Cat. You currently have $82 million in a Swiss bank account registered to Cohn Jat. Right?"

The man named John Cat stood motionless and in awe. "Bu…bu…"

"I did my homework bud. Now then. Before we start I must ask a simple question. If you are a person who opposes or dislikes illegal activities and/or doing illegal activities then I must ask you to leave now."

No body budged.

"Excellent. Now, I have all brought you together because you and I share a simple interest. We love to hack. We treat it like a passion and, as a result, have become masters at it.

"Look around you. You are the top people in our noble passion. You can single-handedly take down the defenses at every military installation and bomb whomever we please. Or we can just shut em' down for good. All of us together can control the world. And that is what I am proposing."

Zack spoke up. "What are we gonna be like? A Mafia?"

"Yes."

"Oh."

Master continued. "We will indeed be a Mafia, however, with a few exceptions. Everything we do will be in the realm of the computer. We will NOT kill! We will only incapacitate when needed. We will go about our regular lives and only hack when I say so, or you have a good reason to."

A young girl broke into Master's speech. "Just the fifty of us? Should you have recruited more?"

"Yes. Yes, I have. You are only a mere 10. I have more agents all around the world! So, what do you say? Will you join my elite society? Will you be a part of… Infection?"

Everyone called out in unison, "YES!"

The silhouette reached off screen and produced a glass. "Good. Join me, please, in a toast."

Everyone got a glass from the kitchenette and raised it to a silent toast.

"Good. Now then, to business."

Jason and Zack looked at each other, raised their glasses and shouted together, "TO BUISNESS!"

Everyone looked at them in a bewildered look. "Uh? We already MADE the toast. Anyway, first things first. In order to control the world, we need our foot in the door. What I want all of you to do is to hack everything you can! Governments, companies, civilians! Upload everything to my server. Don't worry I have more than enough room. One more thing, you will never see me unless it is absolutely necessary. And just to quash the rumor ahead of time, I'm not in the office. If you have to speak to me, or I need to speak to you, my assistant Stephanie will tell you. Got it? Good, meeting adjourned." With that, the two screens flipped back to the I inside the circle.

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Jason made his way to Stephanie. "Uh, hey?" He said.

She looked at him sweetly. "Yes?"

"I have a problem. If I am to stay here, I need a job. D'you he can help me?"

She smiled. "I sure he can. I'll have him contact you if he can."

"Thanks."

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Author's Note:Alright! Enjoy. Stay tuned, next chapter to be soon! See ya!


	6. The trap

Author's Note:To all those who think Xana is Master: This chapter is for you. On with the show.

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Rain. That was all that could be said about the day. Not just any rain. It was the kind of rain that came down in sheets. The meteorologist had claimed the other day that it would be "sunny, with a high of 75". Only one came true. Now the same person was on again apologizing to the town and claiming it was a computer glitch. Now many disappointed (and slightly irritated) people had to cancel or redo their plans. The 4 inside Jeremy's dorm were no different (except irritated). At the moment, they were tossing a small ball to each other.

"You can look at this as a way to save your self the embarrassment, Odd." Said Ulreck, tossing the ball to him.

"Yeah?" The purple hair boy challenged. "I'll simply play soccer against you tomorrow." He threw the ball to Yumi.

"You're going to lose horribly." The star player retaliated. Yumi threw the ball to Jeremy.

Jeremy, who was looking at Ulreck, didn't react in time. "OW!"

Yumi laughed. "Oops. Sorry, I thought you saw it." Jeremy picked the ball up.

"Don't worry about it." He threw it back to her, and turned to his computer. "Hey, Alieta." He called to the screen.

A pink hair girl appeared in a window on his computer. "Hello, Jeremy. How are you?"

A round of hello's greeted her. Jeremy followed up by saying: "Pretty good. How's Lyoko?"

"Quiet."

"That's good. Hey Alieta," said Odd, "How about you come out of there? Xana hasn't attacked in quite awhile."

Alieta though about this for a moment. "I don't know, Odd. He's up to something, I just know it."

"Ah, you're just being paranoid."

She looked at Odd curiously. "What's para…." She paused. And everything got quiet.

"What's wrong?" Asked Jeremy.

"Xana is attacking!" She cried out.

"What? Where?" Asked Jeremy.

"I am not sure, but I can feel pulsations."

"Hm. We better get to Lyoko. But how do we get past Jim?" Said Odd.

Yumi turned to look at him. "Huh? No need. It's summer."

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"Okay, Alieta, where's the tower?" Jeremy said. He and the others were in the control room to Lyoko.

"It's in the Desert Region. I'm about 5 km to the north away from it."

"Roger. Ulreck, Odd, and Yumi are on their way."

Tapping a few commands in to the computer, he prepared to send them to Lyoko. One floor below, Ulreck took a moment to reflect on something.

"We should be very careful. He doesn't seem to be attacking the real world."

The others agreed with him. "What do you think he has planned?"

He didn't know himself. Jeremy opened the scanners for them. "Ok, We're ready."

They got in, and Jeremy performed the ritual to send them to Lyoko. "Scanner, Ulreck. Scanner, Odd. Scanner, Yumi. Virtualization!"

After a successful virtualization, and a few uneventful kilometers later, they came upon the most obvious of traps.

"This is suicide!" Exclaimed Ulreck as he looked down to the tower. The trap in question was deviously simple. There was a very straight, slim corridor to the tower. It was so slim, that they could only go down it single file and also did not allow them any room to maneuver during a fight. Instead of them just going around the corridor, the two walls circled the tower and met in the back thus rendering the corridor the only way in or out.

But the good news didn't end there. Oh no.

"Guys," called Jeremy. There is a Mega-Tank at the tower. He seems to be waiting."

"Yeah. For us to go down there. Is there any other way around it?" asked Ulreck.

"Let me check….. No, sorry, there isn't."

"Well now what?" said Odd.

"Why don't you go down?" Ulreck responded.

"NO WAY! I'm not gonna get my self killed!" he yelled.

Yumi walked up to the entrance. "How far do you think they'll let us go down before firing?" She said thoughtfully.

The others looked at her. "I dunno, probably half way down." Said Ulreck.

"Huh. Hey, Odd, how far can you fire your laser arrow?"

"Pretty far, actually. Why….?"

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Odd crept down the long corridor. "YOU OWE ME! YUMI? YOU HEAR ME? YOU OWE ME BIG!"

"You're doing fine! Keep going!" Called Yumi.

No matter what, Odd was forced to go down the corridor. He just had to choose how it was happening. Yumi, who came up with the entire plan, tried to give Odd a choice. "If you go do this," she had said, "We'll pay for your lunch for a month."

Odd had expressed a dislike of the plan. "No way! It's suicide!" Which was all that was needed to make Yumi and Ulreck grab Odd by the shoulders and throw him into the corridor.

The plan itself, like the trap, was deviously simple. Odd, who had the greatest distance with his weapon, would proceed down the corridor. Jeremy, who would be Odd's eyes so to speak, would tell Odd when the Tank opened up to fire. Accuracy was everything, timing was critical.

Closer and closer Odd crept, extending his arm to fire when needed. A fourth of the way down, then he was half way down. "It's opening!" Shouted Jeremy. "SHOOT IT NOW! Now, now, now, now!"

"Alright! LASER ARROW!" Odd bellowed and right as it emerged from his wrist, the Tank fired off its blast.

No one moved. All were transfixed on the path of the arrow. When the wall and the arrow were three feet away, everyone held their breath. It was uncertain if the arrow would be knocked off course by the wall. It passed without incident.

'Wait…' was all Odd thought. He had completely forgot about the wall, and at the precise moment the arrow hit the Tank, the wall hit Odd. And as the Tank rolled back into the tower and exploded, Odd was tossed like a rag doll when he finally landed face up at the entrance.

"Ugh…." Was all that was managed by Odd Yumi, Ulreck, and Alieta stood over him. Yumi smiled.

"You okay, Odd?" Asked Yumi.

He had his eyes closed. "Not really. I have a really big headache, so if you don't mind, I'll just lie here while you shut the tower off."

They laughed, except Odd. "Okay." Yumi said and ran off toward the tower. But then she stopped and looked at Odd. "Hey, Odd?"

No response.

"Nice work, and thanks."

He raised his and in a half-hearted wave.

Alieta got to the tower, and shut it down.

"Return to the past NOW!" Said Jeremy and everything rewound.

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Just before time rewound, Jason emerged from the office at the warehouse. In just 10 minutes, he had a job and was in the same rank as Stephanie.

He was beginning to like Master.

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Author's Note:First day of school and Jason's new job, NEXT! See ya!


End file.
